


Chocolate Charms

by LdyBastet



Series: Red Pineapple Romance [2]
Category: Bleach
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-14
Updated: 2018-06-14
Packaged: 2019-05-23 07:54:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14930237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LdyBastet/pseuds/LdyBastet
Summary: Byakuya stoically ignores the gift he received on Valentine's, until Ichigo makes a guest appearance.





	Chocolate Charms

**Author's Note:**

> One of my old Bleach fics, just now posting it to the archive. Spoilers through the Soul Society arc. Written for the ides_of_march challenge on InsaneJournal. My prompt was Cranky.
> 
>  **Disclaimer:** The boys belong to Kubo Tite. I'm just borrowing them, having them do things the original creator probably never thought of.

For several days after its mysterious appearance, Byakuya ignored the heart-shaped box on his desk. He didn't look at it; he didn't even touch it to put the lid back on. It didn't exist to him and no one else, including his Lieutenant, said anything about it either. 

In all its ignored presence, however, it took up a certain amount of space. Byakuya pointedly did not look at it, but that also meant he was always aware of it on some level. Out of the corner of his eye, the bright red colour sometimes seemed to attract his attention, pulling at it, yelling for his gaze to focus entirely on it. But Byakuya persisted.

It was much more difficult, though, after the day when Kurosaki Ichigo came by his office to talk to Renji.

~*~

"Hey, Renji!"

"Ichigo! What are you doing here?" Renji put the report away, grateful for the interruption.

"There were some things Ukitake wanted to talk to me about. If Aizen had said this or mentioned that to me while bragging about his world domination scheme before the rest of you guys showed up on the scene." Ichigo sat down on Renji's desk. "So I thought I'd come by and see if you were in trouble."

"Trouble? What do you mean, trouble?" Renji frowned.

"You're always in trouble."

"I'm not! I'm a seated officer for heaven's sake! I don't have a habit of getting into trouble!"

"Oh yeah?" ichigo grinned and Renji was itching to smack it right off his face. "I seem to remember you being thrown in jail for trying to kill Byakuya--"

"Kuchiki-Taichou," Renji corrected him irritably. "And I didn't try to kill him. Besides, I was arrested long before that, for failing to beat you!"

"Whatever," Ichigo said and grinned, looking pleased that he'd hit a nerve. "Then there was the time you got your arse kicked by that Hollow, and when Urahara tricked you into doing all the chores in his shop, and--"

"Shut up!" Renji growled. "Now I know why you're here. You're here just to annoy me."

"Nah. I wanted to see what you guys are doing when you're not fighting Hollows or Arrancar. Or doing soul burials." Ichigo looked around the office with its filing cabinet and bookshelf filled with various books on rules and regulations. "I never thought there would be so much paper work."

"We do have an organisation and a society to run, bonehead." Renji drew back and picked up the report again, having decided that it was most definitely the lesser of two evils.

"Hah! You also have time eat candy!" Ichigo walked over to the other desk, and, to Renji's horror, picked up one of the truffles out of the box and popped it into his mouth. "Mmm... good chocolate." Renji prayed that Ichigo wouldn't remember that they'd discussed Valentine's Day and that anonymous gifts of chocolate had been specifically mentioned.

There was a rustle of fabric from the direction of the door, and the room suddenly felt very crowded, too small for two people. It was filled with an oppressing spirit force that Renji knew only too well. Even Ichigo seemed to feel it, because he stopped chewing and slowly turned his head.

"Kurosaki Ichigo," Byakuya said icily. "Remove yourself from my office and stop disturbing my staff."

"Erm, sure Byakuya. I just came by to say hi anyway." Ichigo swallowed and licked his thumb.

Renji waited with bated breath for Ichigo to be cut into pieces.

~*~

Like a foreign entity, the box seemed to stare one-eyed at Byakuya. The perfect symmetry and completeness of it had been ruined. Where there had been an even mosaic of brown and red there was now a large hole. Ichigo had upset the balance and the missing truffle was constantly calling out to Byakuya's attention. He could no longer ignore the box of chocolates.

With a sigh, he finally gave in and picked up a chocolaty delicacy from the sea of red wrapping material. 

Ichigo had been right--even though he probably couldn't tell a bar of cheap milk chocolate from imported Belgian truffles--it was good. Byakuya sighed again, with pleasure this time, as it slowly melted on his tongue.

As he reached out for another, he wondered again who it was who'd given him chocolate... and why. By now someone should have stepped forward, surely, but so far, none of the ladies he knew had confessed to the idea. It truly was puzzling.


End file.
